Remembering Sweetwater's "Slinging" Sammy Baugh

[Phil C]

He was considered by many as the greatest QBs ever even ahead of Johnny Unitas and others. He was a great passer but he was also an outstanding athlete in other sports such as basketball and baseball. In fact at one time he seriously considered playing pro baseball. He was a great player in High School for Sweetwater and later in college at TCU. He played for the Washington Redskins from 1937 to 1952 and had a great career there. He not only played Quarterback for the Redskins but also defensive back and punter. Back then there weren't as many games played in the regular season and then only one playoff game for the NFL champions between whoever had the best record in the Eastern Division and the Western Division. Sammy and the Redskins were NFL champions in 1937 and 1942 and also played in the championship games in 1940, 1943 and 1945. He was the best pro passer in several of his seasons there and very popular. He was one of the original members elected to the pro football hall of fame in 1963.

It is hard to realize it has been a year since we lost him. On ESPN recently they had a list of the top individual seasons and he wasn't on any of them and one of the older guests critized the list because his great 1943 Season wasn't among them. In 1943 he was the top passer, top punter (with 45.9 yd average) and led the league in interceptions (11). And this was over a 10 game season! He completed 133 of239 passes for 55.6 % for
1,754 yards and 23 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. Even though they lost the NFL championship game this was a great accomplishment.

Thanks for the memories Slinging Sammy of Sweetwater.

[NateDawg39]

Great man for sure. Did a lot of things for his community that go unannounced but he impacted many lives in a positive way

[STANG RED]

Old timers around here will tell you Sammy's brother was even a better athlete than him. Cant remember his name.

[Bullaholic]

In the interviews that I saw Sammy Baugh give in later years, I found out he had a lot of hard bark on him and didn't mind telling folks where he stood on things. I liked that a lot.